Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming Sprouting for August

For some weird reason, I’ve always loved the Harvest Moon games. There’s just something relaxing about planting potatoes, watering your vegetation, going around town trying to help folks, and beating your animals – especially the dog – with a sickle. If you’re a fan of the Harvest Moon series, and you own a DS, you’ll be happy to know that Natsume Inc. – the developers/publishers – announced today that Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, the new installment to the Harvest Moon franchise, has entered manufacturing and will be ready for pickin’ this coming month of August.

If you’re familiar with last year’s DS Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, you’ll be glad to now that Frantic Farming will be taking place in the same world as its predecessor and continues the story of the island and its inhabitants. The plot? Well, crops are sprouting just about everywhere and growing out of control. As the player, it is your sole duty to solve the mysteries behind the barrage of produce problems surrounding the island by taming the crops and gathering as many vegetables as you can. Hopefully, someone will carry some barrels of salad dressing for the shitload of cabbage that’s spawning everywhere.

In Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, players can choose from 12 playable characters; each with their own unique story and abilities. You’ll be able to see how the mystery unfolds from each of the character’s perspective as you mow your way through the abundance of vegetation convoluting the island. Featured in the island of farming aficionados are a couple of story modes including Mission Mode, Story Mode, and an action-puzzle mode called Score Attack, with the addition of Free Play Modes. The Multiplayer Mode will give players the ability to test their agricultural kung-fu against other players, and even play against other mofos who don’t have the game via DS Download Play. You’ll also be able to unlock character art, music, and a whole lot of other goodies from the Collection Room.

Born and raised in New York City, Yaris is one of three co-founders at DualShockers. Gaming since the inception of Nintendo in the 80's, he has grown to avidly appreciate games of every genre, maturing his preference specifically now to third-person action games, first-person shooters and JRPGs. He's a software engineer, father and husband during the day, and mildly attempts to hold onto his "hardcore gamer" title during the evenings. An attempt that he tends to fail miserably at.